Suzanne Gammon
Tribune
Three weeks after descending upon a commercial site along Hwy 17 in Sturgeon Falls with a large police and fire crew presence, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has finally revealed that they found and dismantled an active synthetic drug lab at the site, seizing drugs worth an estimated $550,000 and then arresting seven people.
In a release, the RCMP says that its Transnational Serious and Organized Crime Unit and Integrated Synthetic Enforcement Team worked with the Ontario Provincial Police’s Organized Crime Unit and Clandestine Laboratory Investigative Response Team to uncover “a network of individuals operating a clandestine drug laboratory on a property along the Trans-Canada Highway in Sturgeon Falls.”
The forces executed a search warrant at the site on June 18, and RCMP indicates other searches happened concurrently “at multiple locations”, which were not disclosed. They add that officers seized approximately 42 kg of MDMA, 7 kg of suspected methamphetamine and controlled precursors.
“Subsequent search warrants, including within three sea-can shipping containers, uncovered an additional 540 kg of suspected controlled precursor chemicals and catalysts commonly used in the production of synthetic drugs. Among the seized chemicals were gamma-butyrolactone (GBL), used in the production of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), and nitric acid, a substance associated with the manufacture of methamphetamine and explosives. These hazardous and highly corrosive substances were stored in unsafe conditions, posing significant risks to public safety and first responders,” reads the RCMP release.
